


New Horizons

by DrPearlGatsby



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Background Reylo, F/M, Gingerflower, Gingerrose - Freeform, Rose plays a lot of Animal Crossing, Rosehux, Soft Armitage Hux, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, background stormpilot, lots of flirting, video games - Freeform, winter vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:48:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29482464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrPearlGatsby/pseuds/DrPearlGatsby
Summary: A soft modern AU in which Hux and Rose are just a couple of nerds playingAnimal Crossing. Pure fluff.
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Rose Tico
Comments: 8
Kudos: 43





	New Horizons

**Author's Note:**

> Here’s a plot bunny that came to me Friday night and wouldn’t let me rest until I threw it into a Word doc—featuring a softer, flirty Hux; a style so out of my norm that it _may_ be suffering from Invisible Coffee Table syndrome (setting? who NEEDS setting!); and an easy, _Animal Crossing_ -esque vibe (I hope).
> 
> This fic brought to you by snow days!! But NOT brought to you by frozen water pipes. That part was not great and I was so anxious I couldn’t concentrate for BEANS.

**DAY 1**

“What are you doing here?”

“As greetings go, that one sucks.”

“Good morning, sunshine,” he sneers.

“Hmm, didn’t sound very sincere.” Rose glances up. “I’m playing _Animal Crossing_ ,” she gestures with the controller at the TV. “Obviously.”

She hears his retreat into the kitchen—drawers opening, water running—and resumes ignoring him until he makes it impossible again. He moves into her line of vision, not quite obscuring the TV but enough to annoy. “Are you going to be in here all day?”

Rose glares up at him. “Why, are you?”

“Well I won’t be able to enjoy my book with all _this_ noise going on.” He gestures at the TV, where Rose’s character has paused placidly at the edge of a cliff. A snowy breeze makes the lilies dance while a calming tune plays softly in the background.

Rose rolls her eyes. “I was here first.”

“Yes, but there’s an entire _winter sports complex_ up the road.”

“So? This is my vacation. And if you’re so concerned about it, why aren’t _you_ there?”

“I have a bad leg.”

“It’s a big house. Find somewhere else.” Rose fixes her attention on the TV screen, leaning pointedly to one side to punctuate how little she cares to listen to him anymore.

Hux storms out of the room.

**.**

It’s not been an hour when he returns and plunks himself down at the opposite end of the couch. When Rose glances up to see what he’s doing there, it’s _his_ turn to pointedly ignore _her_ , refusing to look up from his book even when she clears her throat.

_Ugh. Fine_. Rose just goes back to the game, which makes a celebratory noise—she’s caught a snow crab. Her character pockets the item and she resumes diving for sea creatures.

“Does it _always_ make that noise?” Hux is giving her a withering look over the pages of his book.

“When I catch something, yeah,” Rose says nonchalantly, refusing to acknowledge the critique in his expression. “You’ve never played _Animal Crossing_?”

“Of course not.”

“How could I forget? You’re allergic to fun.”

“Why must you be in here instead of out there?”

Rose rolls her eyes. “Rey and Ben are having some sort of— _competition_. They’re going to keep trying to outdo each other until one of them is in the hospital or else until they finally jump each other’s bones and I am _not_ about to be their third wheel.”

“What about the other one? Your boyfriend?”

“ _A_ ,” Rose makes her character swim for the shore, “he’s super gay and _not_ my boyfriend and _B_ , this was all _his_ idea in the first place, to drag me and Rey up here so that we’d _coincidentally_ be at the same resort as his not-so-secret crush-and-coworker Poe Dameron.” Rose sticks out her tongue to punctuate her statement. It’s not that she doesn’t like Poe; she just doesn’t trust him with Finn yet.

Hux looks like he’s about to say something. Rose plows on. “But seriously, why are _you_ here?”

“To make it look like Ben isn’t just here because of Rey _and_ , when she inevitably rejects him for being creepy and overbearing, to help pick up the pieces.”

Rose snorts. Hux is about as comforting as a cactus. “I’m sure you’d be _great_ at that.”

Hux just sniffs.

**.**

As morning turns into afternoon, Rose notices that Hux has totally abandoned his book in favor of watching her play the game. She waits for him to make another biting remark, but after a while she begins to warm to him, begins to entertain the possibility that he may _not_ be a terrible jerk—in spite of his rather prickly mood this morning.

“So,” she says, “what do you do?”

**.**

Hux is just finishing another story about the robotics team at his weird elite prep school when Rey bursts in through the front door.

“Rose! I need your help.”

“What?”

“In the kitchen,” Rey commands, and Rose gives Hux a helpless look before following her friend.

“With a bet,” Rey begins, and she doesn’t bother to explain but it’s something about _superior_ macaroni and cheese. Before Rose even has a chance to ask questions she’s hearing the door opening again and Ben comes charging into the kitchen with grocery bags and suddenly the sexual tension in the room is so _suffocating_ that Rose can’t bear to stand in between the two of them.

“Uh, I’ll—you get started without me,” she begs out, smiling apologetically at Rey. “I have to—help Hux with something.”

Rey is paying just enough attention to look surprised by this information. “With what?”

“Starting a new game. It’ll just be a few minutes. Back in a flash!” She most certainly will _not_ be back, in a flash or otherwise. When she returns to the couch, Hux is looking at his open book in a way that doesn’t quite suggest _reading_. “What, you weren’t conscripted, too?”

“Ben knows that if he asked I’d just sabotage him.”

“Wow, some friend you are,” Rose snorts, though she doesn’t mean it entirely. At least he’s honest; there’s a kind of charm to his quick wit. She proffers the controller. “Wanna play?”

He tries to hide it, but Hux’s eyes light up _just so_ at her suggestion. “Do I have to be you?”

“Actually, no,” Rose says, saving the game. “You can have your very own tent on my island.”

**DAY TWO**

When Rose gets up from the game for lunch, she shoots Hux a warning look. “I’m coming back.” But soon he’s joining her in the kitchen, extracting from the fridge one of the overpriced, prepackaged salads Rose had noticed while rooting around for her Tupperware. She half-expects him to move back into the living room, but instead he stands just apart from her on the other side of the island, eating his salad directly from the container.

“What do you put into it?” Hux points at Rose’s egg salad with his fork.

“Mayonnaise. Chives. Salt.” Rose shrugs. “Tiny bit of yellow mustard.”

Hux looks mildly repulsed.

“What, you like _that_ but you don’t like egg salad?”

“You should try it with smoked paprika—and white wine vinegar, celery, fresh parsley, and green onion. And it’s best with Dijon rather than regular yellow mustard.”

“Yeah, but why use twenty-six ingredients if you only need five?”

Hux’s lip curls, but she doesn’t feel any real malice behind it.

“I think I’m done for the day,” Rose announces after the last bite of her sandwich. Her hands are feeling cramped from holding the controller, and there’s something oddly charming about watching Hux learn to navigate the game in earnest. “I’ll go save. Should I switch to you?”

Hux hadn’t even bothered pretending to read this morning. He nods over his salad.

**.**

“Rey just texted me asking to use the bedroom.”

It takes him a minute, but Hux’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Ben probably isn’t going to be your roommate anymore, either, which means I have nowhere to sleep.”

“Glad I’m not you.”

Rose lies smoothly, automatically. “Rey says Ben is going to make you give me your room.”

Hux finally looks up from the screen. “Like hell I am. Sleep in your friend’s room.”

“Hm,” Rose says, opening her conversation with Finn. _hey we’re gonna be roommates now so don’t get any ideas about bringing your ~lover~ back. Rey and Ben are go._

Hux’s character shakes a tree and a wasp nest falls out. Hux sputters when the wasps begin chasing him. Rose giggles in spite of herself; and Finn responds, _probably not coming back to the house tonight_ , following up his remark with an irresponsible number of eggplant emoji.

“Good grief,” Rose says out loud.

“What?”

Rose ignores Hux, hopping up off the couch to go move her stuff out of the room she shares with Rey into the room across the hall.

**DAY THREE**

It takes Rey and Ben half the day to stumble downstairs, but surprisingly a night of loud lovemaking has neither depleted their energy nor dampened their competitive spirit. Rose pretends to be engrossed as Hux struggles to understand how the slingshot works—“I told you,” she says under her breath, “you have to stand _behind_ the presents”—so as to avoid seeing any displays of affection before they’re out the door.

“I barely slept last night,” she groans to Hux when she hears Ben’s SUV door slam.

“Try having the bedroom _underneath_ theirs.”

“Shoulda given it over to me when you had the chance.”

“Oh, you can _have_ it.”

“Too late. I’m sleeping in Finn’s room now.”

Hux manages to use the slingshot correctly, but soon he’s frowning again. Rose, pretending to play 2048 on her phone, watches him struggle.

“Which one—” he prods blindly at the controller. “No, not _that_.”

He’s trying to use the tool ring but can’t find the button. “Your left,” she offers.

“Left?” His character walks left.

“ _No_ ,” Rose groans, and without much of a second thought she scoots over onto the middle cushion and reaches across him to press the correct button on the controller. “ _That_ one.”

Hux glances down at her, indignant; but he holds their eye contact a _little_ too long and Rose’s heart skips a beat. “Before we were so rudely interrupted,” he nods in the direction that Ben and Rey have gone, “you were going to tell a story.”

“Oh, right,” Rose says brightly, scooting quickly out of his personal space and back to the furthest corner of the couch. “So I don’t want to brag, but they actually wrote a new rule when I was a senior banning my specific strategy because we won too much.” As she talks, she notices the slightest hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth. Then she looks away for fear she’ll be caught staring.

**.**

At 8:40 Rose receives confirmation that Finn won’t be home for the second night in a row, and it sets her on edge. For _days_ she’s been sharing this couch with Hux, listening to him complain about how Tom Nook is _fleecing_ him—in between their exchange of stories from high school and college, gripes about modeling software and working on teams with other engineers, and a category of conversation that Rose has labelled Food Opinions (capital letters and all) because Hux has a surprising number of them (most of which are, by the way, complete garbage).

Not only are they the only two people in this house who haven’t _completely_ lost their minds, they’re the only two who aren’t having stupid amounts of sex—or any sex at all. And the more emojis Finn sends her, the more times she has to watch Rey and Ben give each other bedroom eyes across the kitchen island, the more times she finds herself considering ruining a quickly-blossoming friendship by jumping Hux’s bones.

She’s long given up on 2048, listening to Hux play the game as she surreptitiously googles _why it’s bad to sleep with your friend’s boyfriend’s best friend_ and _how to tell if a man finds you attractive_ and _will a guy sleep with you if you’re not his type_ and _does friends with benefits work_. The results, of course, are what she expects—not very promising.

Rey and Ben come home around 9:30, voices raised theatrically as they storm upstairs; Rose isn’t sure if it’s play-fighting or real fighting, but either way the noises that follow indicate they intend to make up.

“You want a drink?” she asks Hux loudly—maybe too loudly, as he startles slightly at the sound of her voice. “Because I want a drink.”

**.**

The pillow is just firm enough, and Hux’s lap is the perfect surface to rest it on. In the back of her mind, Sober Rose reminds her that draping yourself across a friend’s lap unannounced is a temporary solution that may well create a much bigger problem, but Tipsy Rose sighs, ignoring that thought.

“Begging your pardon,” Hux says quietly, as if he was meaning to sound annoyed but just didn’t commit.

“Gonna take a nap.” The couch isn’t long enough otherwise. It makes perfect sense.

Somewhere above her, the controller clicks pleasantly in Hux’s hands. His voice is still soft, almost teasing. “And what leads you to believe you’re entitled to my personal space, hmm?”

Rose is too tired to answer, so when Hux’s finger prods at her cheek once, twice, three times, she turns her head and catches it between her teeth.

It barely qualifies as a bite, but Hux squawks and yanks his hand back all the same. The movement isn’t enough to jostle her off his lap, so Rose remains in her place, yawning.

“You—you _rodent!_ ” Hux’s voice is indignant.

“You’re mean,” Rose yawns again. Her eyes are too heavy to open, so she imagines him instead—the brightness of his hair, the intensity of his eyes. “But you smell good. And you sure are pretty.”

**.**

“Come now, Rosie,” a voice is saying softly in her ear. “Off to bed with you.”

Rose is sitting up, a bit delirious. She’s not really inebriated anymore, but her mind refuses to wake up fully. A part of her remembers that she’s supposed to sleep in Finn’s room, but that’s all the way _upstairs_ ; she stumbles after Hux, remembering his request to switch rooms.

“That’s not—you’re in my—” His voice comes to her as if from a distance as she drops onto the bed.

“You said I could have it,” she mumbles back. “If you don’t like it then _you_ go upstairs.”

The light comes on and she barely notices except for when it cuts off; she squints her eyes open to see Hux in silhouette leaving the room.

“Mmm,” she calls after him, meaning something like _close the door_.

“I’m coming back,” he murmurs.

Time passes, and the sound of the door closing wakes her again. Soon the blankets lift and the bed beside her dips under his weight. He smells _so good_ , and his hair is probably soft, and there’s a draft coming from the window that she knows is going to freeze her out soon enough. “C’mere,” Rose insists, reaching out blindly with one hand and finding his arm.

Hux hums in response, tugging her toward him until her head is pillowed on his shoulder and her arm is slung across his chest. Then Rose slips back into a deep, deep sleep.

**DAY FOUR**

When Rose blinks her eyes open, Hux is looking back at her. Rose never keeps still during the night, so they’re no longer cuddled up together but instead on their sides facing each other.

He doesn’t _look_ mad. Still.

“I’m sorry,” Rose says quietly.

Hux’s expression is thoughtful, unreadable. “What for?”

“Stealing your bed.”

“If I’d minded, you wouldn’t have gotten away with it.” Hux’s hand, resting on the mattress between them, lifts and smooths her hair, tucking a stray piece behind her ear.

She takes a shaky breath, and Hux’s eyes zero in on her lips.

“Not yet!” Rose claps a hand over her mouth.

Hux frowns.

“I didn’t even brush my _teeth_ last night,” she complains, still through her hand.

“Whose fault is that.”

_Yours_ , Rose thinks, but she doesn’t bother to answer, moving out of his reach and climbing out of bed. “Be right back,” she promises, tiptoeing to the door.

Her toiletries are all upstairs; she moves quickly so as not to attract attention from Rey and Ben. Once she’s decent—face freshly-scrubbed, teeth _vigorously_ brushed, clothes changed (all she brought is loungewear—at least she matches) and hair—well, _attempted_ , she tiptoes back down to Hux’s room.

He’s sitting and waiting for her on the bed, smelling like mint; he’s brushed his teeth, too, and Rose’s stomach does a happy little flip-flop.

“About time.”

Rose shrugs, her snappy comebacks lost to the novelty of the moment as Hux looks at her expectantly. In spite of her earlier resolve, she can’t figure out how to keep moving her feet forward. “So,” she says awkwardly, still standing halfway across the room from him.

“Is this the part where you tell me you only like me as a friend?” He doesn’t _sound_ upset, but there’s something about the way his smile doesn’t reach his eyes all the way that makes Rose realize he might be serious.

She relaxes, just a tiny bit. “Is this the part where _you_ tell _me_ you don’t date, or you’re secretly married or in a relationship with your cat or something?”

“I do have a cat,” he says lightly, his eyes bright with mirth, “but we’re not _that_ serious.”

“Hmm.” Rose crosses her arms, biting at the corner of her lip to fight her smile. “Then what are you proposing?”

“I think I’d like to kiss you thoroughly,” he says. “And then play _Animal Crossing_.”

“Oh, so _that’s_ it. You’re using me to get to _Animal Crossing_. Got it.”

“‘Using’ implies that once I’ve got it I’ll be done with you, but I don’t anticipate things playing out that way at all. We’ve got the matter of egg salad to settle, and I have that software to show you—no, I think we’ll be quite booked. For weeks. Months, really, if not longer.”

Rose hums thoughtfully again, pretending to consider his offer.

“Though I _do_ want to play _Animal Crossing_.”

Rose is unable to stop her giggle, especially when Hux’s next move is to lift one hand and crook a single finger at her. She comes to stand directly in front of him, arms still crossed. “Are you always this forward?”

“Literally never.” Hux’s eyes linger obviously on her lips once again.

“Then what’s gotten into you?”

He meets her eyes. “It might have something to do with the time a doe-eyed know-it-all curled up on my lap like a cat and called me handsome.”

Rose leans in closer. “I called you ‘pretty’ and you know it.”

Then they both move so it’s impossible to know who started it, and in no time at all Hux is on his back, legs still half-off the bed, with Rose kneeling on the mattress over him. He kisses hot and sensuous and his hand has snaked under the hem of her shirt to splay against her back and Rose has confirmation that _yes_ his hair is soft and _yes_ he blushes like a redhead, his pale skin flushed all over and she just can’t resist one more jab, drawing back enough to ask, “Still want to play _Animal Crossing_?”

Hux surprises her by reversing their positions, turning Rose onto her back and caging her with his arms. “Later,” he promises, nipping at her lip. “Right now I’m _very_ busy.”

**DAY FIVE**

Finn’s car is leaving first, provided he makes it back from Poe’s Airbnb in time; Rose, ever prepared, is waiting by the door with her bags when Rey finally makes it downstairs.

“Have a good vacation?” Rose teases.

“I—er, yeah.” Rey tugs at the collar of her sweater, under which she’s layered a t-shirt that looks a little off-kilter. Rose is pretty sure she’s trying to cover up a hickey or two. _Which is why_ I’m _wearing a scarf_.

Right on schedule, Finn pulls up outside; and as the two girls gather up their bags, Hux emerges from the kitchen to help. He hoists Rose’s computer bag onto one shoulder with no question, and Rose notices Rey giving him a curious look. Rose holds the door for her on purpose so that she and Hux can walk behind.

He keeps his voice low and doesn’t acknowledge the way Finn is gawking at him from the driver’s seat. “Call me when you get in?”

“I will.” Rose bumps into him gently with her hip, smiling at his cool expression. It’s not that he’s embarrassed to be with her—more that he’s embarrassed at the idea that anyone will know he has _feelings_. He’s a very private man.

Rey can’t pretend to arrange her single bag in the trunk any longer and moves out of their way, tossing them one last curious glance.

“Be thinking about what you want for dinner,” Hux says as they’re both bent over the trunk, arranging luggage.

“Does that mean I get to pick?”

“No, but it means I’ll consider your opinion. _Oof!_ ”

Rose rolls her eyes, withdrawing her elbow from where she’d jabbed it into his ribs. “I barely touched you.”

“Vermin.”

“Tall… redhead-man!”

Hux raises an eyebrow.

“I’m tired. All out of comebacks.”

With the still-open trunk as cover, Hux leans in and kisses her—directly on the tip of her nose. “See you tonight,” he says, a light flush breaking out over his neck and cheeks.

It’s all Rose can do not to absolutely smother him with affection. “Okay,” she says simply, winking at him before shutting the trunk.


End file.
